My oldest son has Asperger's. From the very beginning, even as an infant, he was not like others.

Both of my sons also have alopecia areata, an auto-immune disorder that causes hair loss. Both of them have the most extreme form, Universalis, meaning they have no hair at all, none on their head, no eyebrows, eyelashes, or any body hair at all. Neither one has ever shaved. When I go to the National Alopecia Areata Foundation yearly conferences, there's always some people there who are absolutely convinced that this disorder is caused by some dietary something, or from "leaky gut syndrome" or exposure to some odd toxin. Well, to repeat myself, this is an auto-immune disorder that causes hair loss.

And so with autism. It's not from vaccines. It's not from dietary something. It's not from exposure to some odd toxin. It's in the wiring, the way we're born with blue eyes or with dark skin, or maybe even the ability to sing on key. There are things that can be done to mitigate the autism, depending on just how severe it is. But every time I read of some child being supposedly cured, I am convinced that the kid wasn't really autistic in the first place. It would be like curing blue eyes.

Asperger's, the more I recognize that my son was different from the day he was born. I'm not sure what kind of environmental things were going on as soon as he emerged from the womb that contributed to the Asperger's.

I can also tell you that we did not know that he was autistic until he was 18, just thought he was a little quirky and odd, and I wound up doing a lot of things that were actually therapeutic and helped, even if I didn't understand what lay underneath his differences.

And even though environment may play a role, I find it hard to believe that changing the kind of milk someone drinks, or taking some group of dietary supplements will "cure" autism. It just doesn't work that way. My son is wired differently from most others, and while he can learn coping strategies, can figure out ways to deal with the world, he will never be like others.

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